A Never Tale
by Lindy Rose
Summary: A place made of dreams and a dreamer whose heart somehow becomes entangled between two sides of a war. A medley of fairy tales. GaaSaku ItaSaku NejiTen NaruHina. ABANDONED AND UP FOR ADOPTION.
1. The Kidnapping of Sakura Haruno

**Hello!**

**So this is story my baby. I love it and I actually want it to succeed more than any of my other stories. For some reason though, my earlier writing just hasn't really been that great. So, after scrapping a whole chapter and rewriting chunks and editing throughout HERE is A Never Tale Remixed.**

**I have so many bits and pieces written that I've put my heart into and I can't wait to share. I just have to Practice, Improve, and bring you to them. **

**So here's the new begining of A Never Tale.  
Read on and hopefully one day you'll fall in love with it as I have.**

**xoxo  
Rose**

**A Never Tale **

******~ ( ~~ ***

******...***

_ Glowing cerulean, awe._

_Warm hands wiped tears from her cheeks and salt air rushed against her skin. _

_ They were running. Chasing one another through the soft blackness, bare feet spinning across grass and sand. She breathed happiness and exhaled laughter._

_ She was wrapped in peace; her heart beat thumped full and heavy with rightness, reverberating in perfect harmony with gentle beats that thrummed though her soul. _

_ She was standing alone, hands reaching up to the sky, trying to pull back the beloved shadow even as it disappeared among the stars. _

_ Pain. A ripping sensation that left in her gasping and in tears from the agony of the hole in her chest. _

_ Don't leave me….._

A pale young woman lurched upright in her bed, clutching at her heart, pink hair falling in tangles around her face. Her eyes flew wildly around black space but found only her dim bedroom surrounding her, not the night or stars or a figure disappearing into the sky. Moaning, she fell back onto her pillows. _That dream again..._

_** Yeah that damn dream again! How many times have you **_**had**_** it in the last few months? **_

The girl groaned at the obnoxiously loud outburst from her Inner persona._ I don't know...alot._

She trailed imaginary fingers over the past months dreams and tried to count how many times it had been. The dream had been a reoccurring one since she was seven and she had woken from it uncountable times since. She didn't know what caused them but after jerking awake, heart racing, sticky with sweat and close to tears almost every night this week she was getting pretty tired of the whole thing. Just damned tired in general.

_** And let me tell you you're starting to show it. Have you looked at the bags under our eyes lately?**_

_Thanks so much for the confidence boost IS. I really appreciate it. _

_**Hey you have a second personality for a reason Miss Sakura. One of those reasons is to keep you in touch with reality. **_

_ You're reality is way too bitchy for this time in the morning. _Sakura grumbled back.

_**Oh it's never too early to irritate you dear. **_

Sakura struggled internally for a moment, warring with the primal desire to stay in bed and the common sense that whispered dryly in the back of her mind that her Inner Self was going to keep annoying her if she didn't get up, before finally heaving her reluctant body upright with a groan. She untangled herself from the pancake layers of blankets and staggered over to the glass paned doors on the far side of the circular room.

The doors were partially opened and unlatched, just as they were every night. No matter what the weather or temperature outside she always kept them, if only a crack, open. Sakura couldn't really say why she needed to do this, only that any time she had ever tried to sleep with those doors closed she woken near tears, filled with a panicked knowing that, by closing those doors against the world she was doing something terrible.

Stumbling groggily across the room Sakura fumbled to push the curtained doors fully open. Keeping her eyes closed against the soft sunbeams that glowed inside her lids she stepped blindly out onto the familiar boards of her balcony and walked forward until her hands met with the cool silkiness of the terrace railing.

Sakura leaned against the wood and opened her eyes slowly as they adjusted to the morning light. She was greeted with a dawn that was just coming to an end and by a sky that was a pale, gold tinged blue, the same blue of her bathroom and bedroom walls and the same gold that she had scattered accents of everywhere else. Sakura loved these colors, she loved the mornings that they brought with them, when everything was cool and clear and all she could hear were the waves breaking on the sand far below.

She ran her hands over the satin wood of the balcony wall; it was worn smooth from that same action being repeated almost every day over the past thirteen years, ever since she and her family had moved into the enormous, seaside house. The tower had been hers from the very first day of their move. Her mother had insisted she would need her own space as she got older but Sakura was pretty sure it was because mother thought she would be less likely to hear her father's drunken ravings during the nights he was home, nights that had become increasingly less over the years. She was grateful though. Not only was the tower up higher than any other part of the building, she had her own bathroom and, from her beloved balcony, she could see all along the coast and far out onto the ocean. More than that though, the tower was her sanctuary, the one place in the house that felt somewhat safe from the instability of her family.

Sakura sighed and breathed in the cold, salty air. It was mid February so there was a frosty nip to it as it filled her lungs, waking her like vaporized caffiene. She stretched out her arms, purring happily in the back of her throat.

Drumbeats and an accompanying wailing guitar suddenly split the quiet and Sakura ran her hand through her hair grumbling; who could be calling her this early in the morning?

Still mumbling under her breath she trotted back into her room and picked up her phone off of the bedside table. The caller I.D. read **Tenten**. Sakura flipped the phone opencuriously and wondered where the fire and brimstone was because the apocalypse had arrived. In Tenten Land non-sporting-event-Saturday's were strictly sleeping-until-noon-days and it was, Sakura looked over her shoulder at the glowing blue numbers on her alarm clock, 7:21.

_ "Good morning Sakura!"_

Sakura winced at the screech that had just pierced her eardrum. "Hey there Tenten...is everything ok? It's a little early for you to be up..."

_"Pssh early? What's early? I don't know what you're talking about, nothings early for me."_

Sakura's brow creased in confusion, "Ummm ok...?"

_"So are you going to be ready for us when Hinata and I get there to pick you up?"_

"Huh?"

Tenten sighed theatrically on the other end of the line. _"Remember? You agreed to go shopping with us today!"_

Sakura thought back...and didn't remember ever agreeing to do any such thing, let alone this early on a Saturday morning... "Uhhh I don't really remember agreeing to that...I don't even remember you asking actually."

_"Well I did."_ Tenten snapped, _"And Hinata will tell you I did too. Now go get ready for some store roaming! We'll be there in an hour and you better be ready!"_

"Wait but Tenten-"

_"No buts!"_ Sakura jumped and pulled the phone away from her throbbing ear, _"We'll be there in one hour and you better be sexy and shopping ready!"_

There was muffled static and Tenten was gone.

Sakura stared at her phone for a second. She knew if she didn't get ready and go with Tenten that her friend wouldn't give her a moment's peace all day. Really, it was inevitable that she would end up going so she might as well look good. An hour didn't leave her much time though...she would have to be fast.

Sakura snapped the phone shut. _Aright, mission mode time!_

_**Operation Shopping Hotness! ACTIVATE!**_

The pink haired girl strode purposefully over to her chunky, wooden armoire and flung open the doors. "Hmmmm, let's see...nope that'll be too difficult to get on and off...that's too dressy...maybe that?"

_**Nononononononono…just no. Why do we even OWN that? **_

Sakura reappraised the shirt she had been eyeing; when it came to clothes she trusted IS's taste more than anyone's. This was probably because IS actually _remembered_ the fashion advice they read_. _"I dunno; good question."She ran her eyes over everything again.

_**Oh oh! THAT. THAT is what we are going to wear today. **_

"What?" Sakura looked back towards the end of the rack she had just skimmed. "That? Oh that! That should work.

Inner Sakura nodded in conceited satisfaction. _**Yet another reason why you couldn't live without me. If you got dressed on your own you would embarrass us both. **_

Sakura chuckled at her Inner self's cockiness and with one hand threw the dress back onto the bed behind her while she opened a drawer with the other. After a few seconds of riffling and properly supplied with a fist full of undergarments she reached over to another cupboard door within the armoire. Opening it she revealed two of her very favorite possessions, her Ipod and her Ipod dock. But this Ipod dock was no ordinary dock; it was a particularly _special_ dock. It was special because it was attached to surround sound speakers throughout her room and her bathroom, making the rooms into her own personal jam area. There was nothing quite like the resonating power of her stereo system and Tenten frequently burst out into rants of jealously over it.

Once she got the music pumping she jumped back onto her bed and threw open the blue curtains of her windows, the curtain rings making fabulous, metallic swishing noises that added to the good morning music. Sakura froze for a moment and just basked in the happy pre-shopping, loud music, sunlight soaked, beautiful morning. Today was going to be a _good day_.

With a cheshire grin on her face she hopped off the bed and danced over to the far corner of her room where she stopped and pulled open a trapdoor. She dropped her bundle through the hole and turned around to clamber down a ladder after it.

Halfway down the ladder she leaped down, landing in the middle of a blue and gold circular bathroom, the wide, curved windows lighting the walls with a surreal glow. It was an interesting bathroom because it was on the second story of the tower, nestled under the stairs leading up to her bedroom, but there was no actual door into it. The only way in or out was through the trapdoor in her floor. Sakura frequently wondered...how on earth the original owners had gotten her massive bathtub into the room? However they did it, she was grateful to them for having decided against an actual door because having her own, truly private bathroom was a marvelous thing.

**~ ( ~~ *****  
****...***

Forty five minutes later Sakura popped back up through the trapdoor, her pink hair bouncy and gleaming, skin fresh and rosy, and clad in a sweet, dove gray ruffled dress that brushed along the tops of her calves. She quickly slipped on a pair of sparkling red flats and grabbed a pair of tiny silver rose earrings out of a small bowl on her nightstand before dancing over to the bedroom door.

She had her hand on the knob when she stopped. "Opps,"_ almost forgot again._ She turned back and ran to grab her Ipod from its dock and her purse from its hook besides the armoire. _There_, she thought. _NOW I'm ready._

_**Tsh you're the spaciest person that ever lived you know that?**_

Sakura laughed lightheartedly as she flung open the door and started down the stairs, thumping down them two steps at a time.

_**No I'm serious...I feel like we're forgetting something REALLY important...**_

**~ ( ~~ *****  
****...***

Three sets of stairs later she arrived in the sunlit, ground level kitchen where her mother was sitting at the table with a cup of tea and her new novel. "Good morning Mamma!" Sakura chirped and leaned down to kiss her mom on the cheek.

Sakura's mother looked up at her and smiled, her eyes and mouth crinkling around the edges. "Morning sweetie, how'd you sleep?"

Sakura's thoughts flashed back to the dream, "Oh, fine I guess." she said as she turned away and busied herself with her own cup of tea and some waffles, "I had that dream again."

Sakura heard her mom's voice dip in concern, "Really? That's the fourth time this week; do you think we should call the doctor?"

Sakura sighed in mild exasperation; Sousa Haruno thought that the solution to every problem was a visit to the doctor. "No Mamma," she said as she popped the frozen waffles into the toaster, "there's really no reason to call the doctor. It's just some weird dream. It's not like it's hurting me."

Her mother sighed a little, "I guess I'll let you be the judge then."

She returned to her book and the room was quiet for a few minutes as Sakura bustled around, humming to herself as she poured her tea and slathered more than generous amounts of Nutella onto her waffles.

"So are you going somewhere this morning?" her mom asked as she settled at the table.

"Yeah, apparently the girls and I are going shopping." Sakura said, biting into a sinfully delicious, buttery, crisp Nutella covered waffle-of-goodness. "I kinda feel like they're up to something though...Tenten never gets up this early and she sounded pretty sketchy on the phone when she called this morning."

"Tenten is already _awake_?"

Sakura laughed. Tenten had slept over so many times over the years that her mom knew just as well as she did what an earthquake causing event Tenten being awake in the AM on a sportless Saturday was. "Yeah I know. That's why I'm so suspicious."

She lifted her mug to take a deep, cleansing swig of tea and closed her eyes as her taste buds took a quick trip to Nirvana. "Oh," Sakura heard her mom rummage around and set something onto the wooden table with a rustle of paper. "I got you something."

Sakura set her cup down and looked towards the end of the table, "Why did you get me..." her eyes widened in horror, "something..."

Sitting in front of her mother's seat was a little, heart covered, pink box, a red ribbon sitting jauntily on top and a pale pink envelope besides it. Sakura recoiled from the thing and stared at the package like it was a slime oozing gremlin poised to spring at her and suck her brains out through her nose.

Sakura's mom looked at Sakura's horrified expression with concern. "Sakura honey? Are you ok?"

Instead of responding Sakura sprang up from her chair and ran over to the pantry door. She threw it open and came face to face with a large day by day calendar page covered in black sharpie skulls that danced around the date: February 14.

"Oh _no_..."

_**I TOLD you we forgot something important**_

There was the sudden sound of a door banging open at the other end of the house. _"Ohhhh Saaaaakuraaaaaa! We're heeeeeeere!"_

_**RUN!**_

Sakura sprinted out of the kitchen, her mother calling after her in alarm, and bolted for the stairway that would lead to the next level of the house. As she passed the main hall she saw a flash of her two friends and pumped her legs faster.

"Hinata she's _getting away_!"

Sakura heard the sounds of Tenten's feet pounding on the wooden floors behind her and tried desperately to increase her speed. But Tenten, the pride of the track, soccer, lacrosse teams, was not to be outrun. When Sakura had reached the bottom of the staircase and begun leaping up the steps Tenten launched herself through the air with a much practiced _spring_ and tackled Sakura, bringing them crashing to the bottom of the staircase together.

"Let me go! Let me go! _I won't go! _You can't make me go! Let me _go_!"

"Just hold still will you! Stop squirming! Quick Hinata hand me a zip tie! Sakura for the love of God hold _still_!"

Sakura's mom stood a few feet away, watching the two girls wrestling viciously as Tenten attempted to shackle Sakura and Sakura bit and clawed at her with a beastlike ferocity.

"G-good morning Mrs. Haruno."

Sousa looked over to see Hinata standing beside her with a friendly smile on her face. "Oh, good morning Hinata." She looked back anxiously at the two battling girls; Sakura appeared to have somehow bitten through a zip tie and Tenten had now produced a roll of duct tape that she was trying to wrap around Sakura's upper arms. "Ummm...do you know what's going on?"

Hinata looked over towards the pair as well. "O-oh well you see Mrs. Haruno, Sakura has never gone to a Valentines D-day dance and since it is our senior year and our last chance to go we thought she should g-go with us. But when we asked her about it she was very adamant about n-not attending so Tenten decided we should bring her by f-force."

"Oh? Why so early? The dance won't be until tonight will it?"

Tenten had managed to tape Sakura's biceps together and had moved onto zip tying her legs. "O-oh well we have to go get dresses for the dance still and since we knew Sakura was going to be-

"Get _off _of me you nutcase!" Tenten let loose a shriek of pain. "_Holy shit!_!...damnit, Sakura you did _not_ just coot boot me!"

"And I'll do it again if you don't get off of me! Take that! And that!"

"God damn it!"

"Sakura! Tenten!" Mrs. Haruno exclaimed, outraged, "you will not use such language in my house!"

"_Raaaaaa! Freedom!"_

-d-difficult" Hinata continued over the sounds of battle, "we thought it would be a good idea to start early so that we have t-time to find dresses and have our hair and nails done as well."

Mrs. Haruno and Hinata watched Tenten throw Sakura over her shoulder and start down the hallway towards the front door. The pink haired mother's expression was still concerned and a little cross but there was approval in it as well. "Well, this is very nice of you girls" Sousa said, "She might not want to but it'll be good for Sakura to go to the dance. Will you need any money?"

Hinata smiled again and shook her head. "O-oh no thank you Mrs. Haruno, we have it covered, don't worry. B-but do you know where her purse is? I'm sure she'll want to have it later." Mrs. Haruno went back to the kitchen and retrieved Sakura's purse. Hinata took it from her with another sweet smile thank you and followed the unearthly caterwauling to the front door, "And thank you for letting us t-take her!"

"Just make sure you all have fun! And stay safe!" Hinata heard the motherly call from behind her as she let herself out through a pair of regal wooden doors onto the shaded, front patio. It was full morning at this point and the air was briny and the sun was bright; perfect weather for a day out.

At the edge of the deck were Tenten and Sakura, the latter of the two who was now clinging to one of the white painted posts that held up the patio roof with all her strength, while Tenten tried to drag her away, still screaming at the top of her lungs.

"Lies! Deceit! Trickery! Coercion!" Sakura's face was cherry bright from her carrying on and the exertion of the still continuing battle. Her hair was a tangled mess and her flannel dress had been shoved up so high you could see the leopard print of her underwear. "Blackmail! Oppression! Treachery! Kidnapping! Rape! _Rape_!"

Hinata sighed and went over to the pair. She pulled a pretty purple hankerchief out of her pocket and rolled it up before stuffing it into Sakura's mouth and deftly tying the ends around the back of her head. Sakura stared at her, bug eyed and aghast. Hinata looked back at her sternly

"N-now see here Sakura." she said firmly, "We're trying to do a good thing for you. You _will_ cease this uncivilized s-screaming and come with us calmly and you _will _act like the elegant young lady that I know you are or so h-help you." She tugged Sakura's dress back down towards her knees and then started down the patio steps towards Tenten's green van. She opened the passenger door and turned back to stared regally at her two best friends, "Are you coming?"

**~ ( ~~ *****  
****...***

Tenten leaned towards Hinata as they drove away from the Haruno residence. "Hinata," she whispered over Sakura's sniffling, "how did you _do_ that? I didn't think you had a mean bone in your body!"

Hinata leaned over and whispered back, "I just tried to pretend I was my etiquette teacher from when I was little. I was terrified of her but I behaved better for her than I did for any of my other tutors so I thought maybe if I acted like her Sakura would listen to me too. Was I really mean?"

Tenten started laughing at Hinata's wistful tone. "Yeah Hinata." she choked out through the giggles, "meaner than a hippo with a hernia."

Hinata sat back in her seat and sighed in contentment. Today was going to be a _good day_.

**~ ( ~~ *****  
****...***

**All critiques are WELCOME! Thanks for reading!**


	2. Tenten is a Serious Dumbass

**~ ( ~~ *****  
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"Goddamnit!" Temari cursed as she tried to weave in and out of traffic, "So many God damned tourists! Where did they come from? They're like, like, like _baby sea turtles_!"

"Baby _sea turtles_?" Sakura asked, leaning to the front of the vehicle from the back seat, deep sarcasm running through her voice and clearly questioning her driver and co-kidnappers sanity, "Why the hell are they like _baby sea turtles_?"

The car suddenly skidded dangerously around a corner and an unbuckled Sakura flew to the other side of the death bus with a _thump!_ while Hinata clung to the dashboard.

"Because," Tenten said, grinning maniacally as she gunned forward towards a group of tween wangsters who were swaggering their saggy pants selves across the street. Utilizing their underused brains the group scattered and dived out of the way of the vehicle as she barreled through them. They got up as she drove madly away, screaming and cussing at their almost murderer and she flipped them off through her open window. "They're not there one day then suddenly _POP!_ they're all over the beach! Coating the God damned ground in their slow pokey turtliness!"

Sakura and Hinata exchanged a look and both buckled themselves in. "T-Tenten?" Hinata said hesitantly, "we have to buy our dresses and get ready for the dance remember? If you have to run away from the p-police again we might not have enough time left to do everything."

"Oh..." Realization dawned on Tenten's face and the speedometer dropped down to only 10 miles over the speed limit. "hadn't thought of that."

Sakura cursed Hinata's common sense under her breath.

"What was that Sakura?" Tenten asked sweetly, looking at Sakura in her rearview mirror.

"Oh, nothing." Sakura said, beaming back with a cavity inducing smile. She leaned forward towards Hinata. "So Hina, where are we going exactly?"

"I'm n-not quite sure." Hinata said as she looked out at the unusually jam packed boardwalk, "it looks like all the stores are more crowded than usual."

"But you know that_ means_ don't you Hinata?" Tenten said ecstatically.

Hinata and Sakura both looked over at their friend, confused, "N-nooooooo..."

Sakura was reminded forcefully of her last visit to an amusement park as Tenten swerved violently again and screeched into a parking space. "It means a _sale_!"

"Oh my..." Hinata said faintly as Tenten bounded out of the car.

While Tenten bounced around outside and Hinata rummaged around up front for something Sakura tried to yank open the car door and make a break for it. To her frustration the door refused to open and she tried the other one with the same infuriating result.

"What the hell?" Sakura growled at the useless handle. The door was unlocked, why wasn't it opening?

From behind her the other door suddenly slid open and a triumphant Tenten stood there beaming, hands on hips. "Haha! Thought you'd try and escape huh?"

_**No shit Sherlock**_ IS replied snidely.

"Well I outsmarted you!" Tenten flicked a little black knob inside the door back and forth, "Child locks! Hinata! You got the leash?"

Hinata came into view of the open door and handed something purple and rope like to Tenten. "Yeah I b-brought it."

Sakura looked at the thing in Tenten's hands for a moment, her brain mentally flat lining. "The _what_!"

_**The WHAT?**_

Tenten leaned into the dim car; the light from outside framing her looming figure in the doorway, leash in hand, a sadistic smile on her face. "Yes Sakura. We brought little Hinabi's old leash. Just in case, you know, you tried escaping again. Cause if you tried while wearing _this _baby, well, you would just embarrass yourself."

"Get that thing _away from me_!"

**~ ( ~~ *****  
****...***

The heads of walking passerby's turned at the sound of shrieking protests and evil cackling. Some even stopped to stare at the violently rocking indigo van from which the rated R sounds came.

Poor, poor Hinata stood in front of the vehicle, reassuring onlookers and ushering them on, her face raspberry red, the pale blue of her shirt particularly contrasting against her heated skin, and stuttering even more than usual from embarrassment.

"Are you sure everything's all right in there honey?" A hefty, platinum blond, middle aged mother stopped to ask. Her children leaned out of their stroller, pointing with sticky hands and giggling at the noisy car.

"O-oh yes." Hinata stammered, "Everything's f-fine my friends are just-"

"You wanna go again bitch? Just try and put that on me I da-_Ahhh_!"

"Come er you!"

"_Shannaro_!" Sakura bellowed.

Hinata winced at the sound of a body being thrown into what was probably the rear window.

"Haha! Take that you adrenaline junkie headcase!"

"Sakura you're going _down_!"

"No! _No_! _Noooooo_! Get *grunt* off me!"

"Gotcha now don't I-_Ahhh_!" Tenten screamed in pain, "Let go of my hair you bitch! Let it go right-_Ahhhhh_!"

The mother's eyebrows shot up and she hurriedly pushed away the stroller away, anxious to protect the innocent ears of her offspring.

Hinata moaned and sat down on the sandy wood of the board walk, no longer caring if people stopped to stare, the picture of defeat. If she managed to get them to the dance in two whole pieces it would be a miracle...she might as well give up now, they'd been at it for twenty minutes already...

"Hey Hinata look! I got her!"

The white eyed girl fell over onto her side in surprise; she had been so lost in her frustration that she hadn't realized the screaming and thumping had stopped. She looked up now and saw a victorious Tenten, a purple leash wrapped around her hand. The leash led from her hand to the waist of a miserable and disheveled Sakura who was staring at the ground, lower lip out in a defeated pout.

Hinata looked at Tenten, terribly impressed. "How did you?..."

Sakura glared at Tenten, eyes so full of fury Hinata was surprised Tenten's hair wasn't singed. "Someone didn't stop weightlifting after they quit the wrestling team that's how."

Tenten somehow managed to look both baffled and horrified; "What, you think I should have left my poor babies on the rack to collect _dust_? Are you _mad_?"

"Well _someone_ here is..." Sakura mumbled.

"What was that Miss I-Just-Got-My-Ass-Handed-to-Me-for-the-Second-Time-Today?"

"_Excuse me_? Not everyone-"

Hinata grabbed the hands of both young women and started dragging them behind her. "Come on girls," she said, "we don't have time to f-fight, we have dresses to find!"

Behind her she heard Sakura moan and Tenten whoop. _Oh ancestors, _she prayed_, please please_ please_, give me strength_...

**~ ( ~~ *****  
****...***

Sakura was tired. Actually, she was dead beat. She had been dragged around for almost three hours now and she was sore, drained, and fed up with the entire shopping thing. Tenten had been right about the crowds; the masses of people were tourists who were there for the giant boardwalk Valentine's Day Sale and despite Tenten's vicious and competitive shopping methods there hadn't been anything suitable left for any of the three girls.

From her seat on the bench that she had melted onto, Sakura wearily registered the back of a tall, broad shouldered brunette, clothed from head to toe in all black, who seemed to be flirting with a terrified and stammering Hinata.

"So you three are dress shopping huh?" he said, "Well I know an exclusive little place not too far from here. It's a kinda out of the way though, wanna come with me cutie?"

The store scoping Tenten finally noticed the stammering and nerve wracked Hinata and stepped in to tell the boy off, something along the lines of 'no way in hell would someone as defenseless as Hinata ever be allowed to wander off with a creepy freak like him and he better get his ass out her sight unless her wanted it smeared across the ground.'

The exhausted pinkette blocked out the noises and exhaled slowly, trying to dispel her quickly gathering depression. Fucking men. Fucking Valentine's Day...it was this entire cursed holidays fault. If it weren't for whatever genius who came up with the dumb idea to have a lovey dovey day celebrating couples in the first place she wouldn't _be_ in this predicament...

_**Hey**_, IS piped, interrupting her gloomy musings, _**make them feed us. If they're going to drag us around all day it's the LEAST they can do.**_

Sakura immediately perked up, an evil smile curling up towards her eyes. Excellent_ idea IS. I suddenly realize I feel hungry for something_ _very _expensive_._

_** Atta girl! Rob 'em blind! Make 'em pay through the eyeballs!**_

Sakura yanked on her leash and Tenten lurched back a little from where she had been glowering at the retreating back of the brunette. The sudden pull on the leash had caught her by surprise and she turned around to glare at Sakura whose imagination morphed her captors brown buns into demonic horns. "What do you want?" She snapped. "You're not going to try and fight me again _are you_?"

Sakura cocked her eyebrow at her friend and smirked somewhat sarcastically; yeah, the idea of free for her and expensive for her kidnappers food had really restored her energy all right.

"No, Ii'm not actually. That would be stupid. I just wanted to let you know that," she glanced towards Hinata, whose face was just beginning to cool again, before redirecting her glare at her leash holder, "as the abduc_tee_ it is my right to demand food and as the abduc_tors_ _you_ are obligated to feed me. _Before_ I pass out from hunger."

Tenten raised her eyebrows and pursed her lips. She looked over at Hinata, exaggerating her movements and making Sakura roll her eyes at the ridiculousness of her best friend.

"Well Hinata," Tenten asked, "Do we owe the violent heathen food?"

Sakura puffed up and started sputtering at the comment._ Violent heathen am I?_

Hinata once again sensed the ominous ripples of another battle. "O-oh yes!" she said hurriedly, stumbling over the words, trying to get them out fast enough to prevent yet another skirmish. "Of course! I-it's lunch time, of course we should all eat! Umm, w-where would you like to go Sakura?"

"Hmmm..." Sakura looked up and down the boardwalk. She then realized with a great deal of frustration that all the nearby restaurants would probably be filled with the hundreds of tourists that they had been fighting off all day. The walk was a lot more spacious at the moment as well, lending support to her theory.

"Maybe we can...look for a very secluded café?"

Tenten scowled in confusion before scanning the area with her eyes. Sakura watched her friend and saw understanding dawn in her chocolate eyes as she figured out what Sakura had already noticed. "Hm," she grunted, "probly the best idea."

She started forward again, dragging Sakura with her as she turned into a filthy, dimly lit, empty alley way.

"Hold on a second," Sakura protested, "Tenten you idiot we shouldn't go running off into dark, deserted alleys that we've never been down before! You might as well hang signs around our necks that say 'Please mug and rape us!'."

Tenten kept on walking, dragging Sakura along with Hinata, whose pale eyes were wide as she hurried nervously behind, clutching Sakura's sleeve, "Who says I haven't been back here before?"

Hinata exhaled shakily in relief, "Oh, you have? Thank good-"

"Oh I didn't say I _had_ either Hina." Tenten chirped far too perkily.

_**That voice makes me want to kick her.**_

_ Agreed_

Sakura reached out and wrapped her hand around poor Hinata's shaking one. "Have you or not Tenten?" she demanded crossly; she hated it when Hinata was frightened. It gave her very vio-_aggressive _feelings.

"Well...no. But!" Tenten cut off Sakura's protest, "This is an adventure! Who knows where it could lead us!"

"Um, I don't know," Sakura growled in aggravation, "the _afterlife_!"

Hinata whimpered.

"Aw pish, Hinata don't be scared! Life isn't worth living without a little risk!" Tenten stopped at a fork and closed her eyes. "Eni-meni-mini-mo..." she mumbled under her breath.

_**Oh that's just GREAT. Our lives could depend on which way the tiger hollers. That's just WONDERFUL. **_**DO **_**SOMETHING BEFORE WE ALL**_** DIE. **

Sakura strongly agreed with IS but past Tenten experiences told her the best thing she could do for the moment was to try and comfort Hinata. The girl was scared of almost everything, something that made her life pretty difficult at times, but she would always try to act as tough possible. And, unfortunately, abandoning their idiotic leader wasn't really an option.

"You okay there Hina?" Sakura whispered as they walked carefully around a suspicious pile of rags and danger.

"Y-yeah," Hinata whispered back, "I-I'm just fuh-fuh-fine, d-don't worry Sa-sakura."

Sakura sighed. _When you start stuttering like that of course I'm going to start worrying you silly girl._

She squeezed the anxious young woman's hand, "It'll be okay Hina, Tenten and I are here. You know we could take on three thugs apiece." Tenten hummed from ahead of them and took another random turn. Sakura's anxiety rose from itchy anxious to raging anxious.

Hinata forced out a strained laugh, "Y-yeah I k-know Sakura."

Tenten came to a sudden halt in front of them and the distracted Sakura bumped into her stiffened back.

"Tenten what the?..." Sakura peered irritably around her friend's shoulder, eyes searching down along the dingy path.

The three girls had come to a stop in the middle of a three way junction. They had just come down one dim lane and at the end of the right turn, the direction Tenten had started walking before coming to her jolting stop, was a shadowy group of what looked like six hulking men, or, at least, that's what Sakura _thought_ they were. The one in front was definitely a guy and the leader of the other five; tall and broad shouldered with familiar brown hair and bizarre purple make up on his cheeks. His arms were crossed and he stood with his feet apart, a stupid smug smile on his face that clearly said 'Uh uh uh little girls. You're not comin' though this way.'

Sakura didn't like him, in fact she _really_ didn't like him.

"Ummm, Hina? I know I said Tenten and I can take three guys each, and don't get me wrong we totally can! But I think it might be the best idea to try and avoid it if we can...Tenten? Let's go back okay?"

Tenten didn't look so keen on her adventure any more. "Sakura, I totally agree with you. Let's go back. Right now." The brunette turned around hurriedly and Sakura followed, her hand tight around Hinata's, keeping an eye on the six at the other end of the brick canyon.

She suddenly thumped into the back of her friend for the second time. She looked up in annoyance. "Tenten what're you doing I thought we were..."

Sakura felt a cold wash of fear rush over her. "Oh shit..."

From behind the girls, down the same stretch of alleyway that they had just come from, was a group of six more men. Ominous leers loomed at the girls through the murky light.

Sakura felt her eyes expand and her grip on Hinata tightened even more. The end of the leash slipped from Tenten's slack hand. "Oh _shit!_"

"Tenten! Hinata! _Run!_"

Sakura sprinted left, down the only stretch of road _not_ blockaded by strange and threatening men. She dragged Hinata behind her and heard Tenten running at their rear, heard her speedy friend's feet sometimes come to hurried stops and the scrape and crash of trash against the ground as she grabbed and released her crude artillery at the pursuing footsteps. The echoing sounds mingled with the merry laughter of men as Tenten's makeshift weapons missed their targets and clanged against the asphalt, she heard the curses that flowed from the girl's mouth as she ran again. Sakura felt her heartbeat pulse in her fingers tips, in her throat, in her pounding feet, and she didn't think; her actions were instinctual but if she could have put the emotion, the resounding _need_ she felt through her blood, into words, they would have been _protect Hinata_.

The girls came to another junction and Sakura bolted left, only to come skidding to a stop and wrench back around, Hinata whipping around behind her with a cry of surprise. At that end of the alleyway was the smug brunette and his five lackeys.

_"The other way Tenten! The other way!"_

Tenten, ever the natural athlete, turned around smoother and quicker than Sakura had been able to and sped back to the way they had come. She raced to the junction and started throwing more alley junk at what must be the oncoming other six, obviously trying to keep the pathway clear long enough for her slower friends to get through.

Sakura put on another burst of speed, hauling the stumbling and gasping Hinata behind her. _We just need somewhere to go where they won't follow!_

The two made it through the junction, Tenten following close behind, but Sakura could tell her friends were tiring and she hadn't seen anywhere _safe_ damnit!

_** Look! A door!**_

Sakura jerked her head to the right where IS was frantically directing her. Yes, she was right; a pair of glossy wooden doors were on corner at the end of this stretch of alley. They looked like church doors strangely enough, and...there was sunlight again! Clear, blessed, unblocked sunlight!

"Tenten! Go for those doors!"

"_Right_!"

Sakura heard her friend's footsteps quicken and watched the white and brown blur pass her and Hinata to open the doors. What was frightening was that the velocity of their pursuer's footsteps also seemed to increase.

Tenten had reached the door and had it held open for her friends. "Come on girls! Run! Hurry! _Run_!"

Sakura told her tired legs to go faster...but they seemed to be ready to give out. _No! No, we're almost there, almost there!_

She pushed harder and pulled Hinata through the opened wooden door, crashing down to her knees. Hinata fell beside her, and Tenten yanked the door closed behind them.

"Quick," Tenten gasped, "give me your leash."

Sakura struggled frantically with shaking fingers to unwrap the rope around her waist. As soon as it was off Tenten snatched it from her hands and wrapped it through the handles of the door. Her deft hands wove it boa constrictor tight through the metal loops before her knees gave out and she slide down to the floor in exhaustion.

Then, through her wheezing pants and the blood that beat in her ears Sakura heard the sound of shuffling footsteps. _Someone else was in the building._

Sakura felt another rush of adrenaline fill her veins and she struggled to force her suddenly immobile muscles to move, but fell back down to her knees when she tried to stand. From her uncomfortably vulnerable position the bedraggled pinkette looked up and found herself nose to tooth with a dazzling smile, the owner's happy face framed by cascades of blond hair that spilled over blue covered shoulders.

"Well hello there!" The smiling face said, "Welcome to Fairy Godfather Deidara's Boutique and Salon!"

**~ ( ~~ *****  
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**Reviews are loved, Critiques are needed! Please help me help my baby grow! :)**

**xoxo  
Rose**


	3. Deidara, Temari and the Nodding Man

**So! The first new chapter for A Never Tale in I don't want to think about how long. The first wholly new chapter you will be seeing for now but I am writing into the wee 4am hours to try and share with you all the story I see in my head. **

**If this chapter seems a bit slow please let me know. I wanted to introduce some important characters but I don't want this to seem like a filler chapter or to bore anyone. **

**Critiques please! Those are what I really need right now. **

**xoxo  
Rose**

**~ ( ~~ *****  
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Sakura glanced around the elegant waiting room in which she sat. It was lovely; all soft colors and airy curtains and skylights, and so foreign that she itched with concealed anxiety.

Again she asked herself-where _were_ they? The toothy, blonde haired man, who had introduced himself as _the_ Deidara, had left the three girls in this room 15 minutes ago and, while the glasses of sweet tea and plates of fruit and finger sandwiches had sated the girl's appetites, Sakura still couldn't completely switch off her defensive instincts. Something about this place, past all the glitter and pomp of the foyer and the cushy softness of the waiting room, was beyond the mundane. She couldn't seem to seem to put her finger on it but her spidey senses were jangling.

"I have returned!"

Sakura twisted around in her chair to watch the prettiest man she had ever laid eyes on dance into the room. With his fluttering yellow hair and billowing sapphire silk pantsuit the immediate impression Deidara gave was that of a giant, pirouetting butterfly.

Gliding over to the girls he brought his lithe form to rest behind the couch Hinata was sitting on. Looking around at them all with a grin that crinkled the corner of his single, visible, cornflower blue eye Deidara's gaze fell briefly on each of them before inclining his head towards the shy, raven haired girl.

"So, my lovely ladies, what occasion has brought you to us today?"

"We-well," Hinata stammered, obviously flustered at being the one this dazzling person addressed, "we were looking for d-dresses to wear to the Valentine's Day dance tonight."

"_Really?_" Deidara cried gleefully and in one dizzyingly fast movement he had jumped over the back of the couch, delicately alighting mere inches away from an alarmed Hinata.

Elbows on his knees, Deidara leaned forward eagerly, an electric smile stretching his face, "That's so _exciting!_ What's the theme?"

Hinata glanced nervously over where Sakura was exchanging an amused look with Tenten. Blushing from the neckline of her shirt to the roots of her hair Hinata turned back towards Deidara, leaning a little away from the glare of his teeth. "W-well it's actually a Fairy Tale M-masked Ball...thing. You're s-s-supposed to go as a character from a story but um, with a mask."

At this statement Deidara's expression transformed into one of complete and sincere euphoria. Sakura couldn't help but giggle at the expressive man.

_**...Ok this guy has GOT to be high. What's the betting that he's rolling?**_

_Maybe he's just one of those people just naturally acts like they're high?_

_**...No. He's high. High as a damn kite. **_

"This will be wonderful!" said Deidara, bouncing out of his happy trance and leaping off the couch in a flurry of blue and blonde. "I will make you ladies into _art!" _Deidara raised his hands into the air in exaltation, _"_With these hands I shall shape and paint the colors of your souls for the world to see! Your beauty will light up the darkest of hearts and stories of your radiance will live on forever! Poets will-"

"Deidara, please, shut the fuck up before you scare them all away."

Sakura and the other three occupants of the room all spun around in surprise at the voice, their eyes coming to rest on the curvaceous, smirking woman leaning in the open doorway, her head haloed with four enormous blonde buns.

Deidara's sighed theatrically, shoulders heaving. "Temari, must you always be so crass?"

The woman strode into the room, stopping in front of Deidara and smiling at him with her hands on her hips. "Course I do. Someone in the family has to balance out all my stick up their asses brothers."

"And our perpetually crude Kankuro does not do this already?"

"Being a pervert doesn't count; it's completely different."

Deidara shook his head, tsking. "Bad manners are bad manners Temari."

Sakura watched Temari swell in outrage. "I said please goddamnit! And you better not be trying to lump me with that dirty old man of a little brother Deidara!"

"Well if the corset _fits_ Temari!"

The blonde woman jabbed her finger at Deidara's nose. "Don't think I won't beat you into the ground just because there are witnesses here Deidara!"

"You forget yourself Temari! As your _boss_ I could have your generously sized behind fired!"

"Boss my- _Wait a second!_ _Did you just call me a fat ass you son of a bitch? Did you?_"

"Perhaps I _did_."

"_You are so DEAD! Where's my fan? I'm going to blow you all the way to-_"

"_Temari!_ Have you forgotten who else is here?"

"Of course I haven't! I'm not that st-"

Temari stopped mid tirade, turning her head slowly to look over at the shell shocked faces of Sakura and her friends. The flaming color that had risen with her rage drained from her cheeks in seconds. Her eyes found Sakura's and she gulped heavily. "Errrr..."

"HAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Sakura's head swiveled to the right, her eyes landing on the shaking figure of Tenten who was doubled over in laughter, hands clutching at the edge of her seat.

"Oh man," her friend said a minute later, sitting up and wiping under her eyes. "Ohhh man that was funny. You guys are _hysterical_." She hopped up from her chair and walked over to Temari, looking her up and down and then leaning in to stare her in the eye. Temari looked back warily.

"I like you." Tenten announced suddenly. "I wasn't sure about this whole thing-the circumstances of our arrival being a little sketchy-but I like you." The brown bun headed girl stuck out her hand to the blonde. "You're good people."

Temari's eyes widened in surprise and she looked down at the offered hand and then back up at Tenten's face. After a moment her mouth curled into a wicked and, Sakura thought apprehensively, eerily familiar grin.

Shaking the offered hand Temari said, "I think I might like you too..."

"Tenten." Tenten offered.

"Tenten then," said Temari. "Wanna come back and see our shrine of worship for all things girly?"

"Love to." Tenten replied. She looked back over her shoulder at her friends. "Come on girls!"

Sakura glanced over at Hinata and shrugged. Though Tenten's sense of judgment had been proven serious faulty once already today, it didn't seem like it could hurt and, though her spidey sense was still humming with strangeness, Sakura didn't think it was a _threatening _strangeness.

_**We better keep an eye out though. I think craziness is catching around here.**_

Sakura stopped in front of Deidara on her way out of the waiting room. The poor man still stood where Temari had left him, his head tilted back, pained creases around his mouth and brow, a long fingered hand draped across closed eyes.

"You gonna be alright Mr. Deidara?" Sakura asked with a playful smile.

Without opening his eyes Deidara flapped a hand after the three departing women. "Family, my dear," he said, "can be the most trial-some thing to endure. But," he said, thin fingers now massaging his temples, "when it comes down to the heart of matters they are family and there isn't anything you wouldn't do for them."

Sakura smiled at the backs of her friends and her mind flashed over a sunlit picture of breakfast with her mother this morning.

"Yeah," she said, the curve of her mouth softer now. "Nothing truer than that."

Deidara looked over at the pinkette from under his hand, his eyes serious as he studied the expression on her face.

A silence rested over the two for a minute. It was one made of soft, sentimental thoughts and, for a moment, standing with this eccentric stranger, Sakura felt the comfort of a long time friend and comrade. It was strange but...nice.

Sakura peeked over at her quiet companion and thought she caught a glimpse of scrutinizing blue before, with a flick of blonde, Deidara shook himself and offered her his arm.

"Milady?" He asked pompously. "Would you care to accompany me to visit our tailor?"

She grinned at his posturing and laid a small hand along the blue silk of his shirtsleeve. "I would love to M'lord."

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Deidara led Sakura down a different path than the three women had taken. They meandered through brightly painted corridors lined with fantastic portraits of mystical creatures. In one, tiny painting, fairies played amongst technicolor flowers under a brilliant sun, a tall, narrow masterpiece beheld a monstrous dragon leaping into flight from the top of a cliff. In another long, stretched painting plump satyrs and leafy haired dryads feasted merrily along a lengthy table under flickering colored lamps. The pictures continued on and on and Sakura depended wholly on Deidara to keep her from colliding with anything, her own eyes were far too busy drinking in the brief glimpses of the magical painted wonders to watch where she walked.

After a long silence, "Admiring the paintings?"

Sakura flushed and tried to contain her outright gaping. "They're…amazing." The word wasn't enough, "Glorious."

"Quite life like are they not?"

Sakura moaned longingly, "Wouldn't it be amazing if they really were alive somewhere?"

Unseen by the happy teen her words earned a sharp glance from Deidara. "Such a heartfelt statement." He said in mock casualty.

Sakura laughed and sent him a glancing smile which he returned with ease. "When I was a kid I read all the time. At lunch, recess, every night until my mom came and took the book from me." A sneaky smirk played with her mouth, "Sometimes I got two copies of a book from the library so if my mom took the first copy I'd still have a second. Until I met Hinata and Tenten books were my best friends and the fantasy books were always my favorites."

She sighed. "And even though in every magical story there always seem to be the same problems humans have-corruption, mob idiocy, lies, betrayal-evil is questioned and fought against. And somehow good always seems to win at least a little and there's this-this _something_ more that regular old life doesn't seem have."

Her pink lips quirked ruefully and she lifted her eyes back up to him face. "Silly huh?"

They halted before a large wooden door and Deidara patted her hand kindly, his blue gaze reaching out to hers. "Not at all my dear."

He then turned away and rang a small brass bell that hung besides the door. "Sasori!" He called, "I have brought a young lady here to see you!"

The door swung suddenly open and a dry, whispering voice said "I know dolt. I can hear you prancing half the building away."

Sakura giggled and peered curiously around an indignantly squawking Deidara to behold a pale, rusty haired man an inch or two shorter than herself. Deadpan brown eyes stared at the babbling, flamboyant blonde until the small man suddenly turned and walked away from the entryway.

"Just come in already." He said dispassionately.

Deidara huffed with frustration and followed after the red headed half pint, grumbling under his breath, Sakura trotting alongside him.

The room they entered into was round and beautiful. A wide skylight above poured buttery sunshine into the space and Sakura gazed around the tailor's room in interest. Many cupboards and drawers lined the walls; tiny tables overflowed with piles of color and cloth mannequins watched silently.

In the middle of everything was a low dais with a squashy chair and barstool besides it. The ginger tailor stood to the side of this stool, an aura of obvious impatience around him.

"I don't have all day you know."

Sakura smiled nervously at him. She hadn't the foggiest idea of what he wanted her to do.

Sensing her unease Deidara leaned down and whispered "Never fear my dear. I'll not leave you alone with the needle mouthed tailor." Sakura tried not to look too relieved.

Standing upright once more Deidara led the tense pinkette towards the dais and gentlemanly lent her his hand as she stepped uncertainly onto it. He smiled an encouraging smile at her and then sat himself daintily in the neighboring armchair.

Feeling very vulnerable up on the pedestal Sakura watched the little red haired man nervously as he began to circle her solemnly, brown eyes gazing up and down as he walked. Completely silent he would stop, tilt his head, scan detachedly once more, and then begin his circling again.

Finally he stopped.

_Oh thank god. I felt like he was going to eat me._

_**Well obviously he's planning on it! Look at him! He's a maniacal ginger! He probably wants to steal our soul and play puppets and dress up with our corpse! And yes…then eat us.**_

"Deidara what is the theme of the dance she is attending?"

"Fairy Tale Masked Ball."

Sasori nodded slowly. "As of yet have you given any thought as to who she should go as?"

With a practiced and refined laziness Deidara propped his head with his hand, leaning forward in contemplation. "Well she obviously must go as some sort of Princess. Anything else would just not be fitting."

"Acknowledged" The red head nodded some more.

_**So. I have a name for the demonic ginger who will surely devour us the moment we are left alone with him.**_

Sasori glided away from the dais and began to rifle through the tall cupboards that circled the walls. Glimpses of rich colors and textures peeked from above his head and with each roll of cloth he pulled he nodded in silent agreement with his decision.

_**The Nodding Man.**_

Sakura giggled at the witlessly funny nickname but clapped her hand to her mouth when he stopped and turned his serious gaze towards her.

"Yes?" He asked gravely, his voice like fine dust in the wind.

"Nothing. Sorry." She squeaked. Sasori stared at her a moment longer, nodded his silent acknowledgement of her apology, and returned to his rummaging.

_**This ginger haired fiend is a silent predator. A lone hunter, he responds to himself through nods of approval. Psychological persuasions are useless against him for nothing is truth unless he nods that it is.**_

Sasori returned with a towering stack of fabric which he placed onto the ground and quickly sorted into a strange gold, white, emerald and ruby rainbow. He paused thoughtfully and then turned to Deidara. "Have you thought any more upon what Princess she should attend as?"

"Well," Deidara stretched out the word, "While Sleeping Beauty is what first came to mind I don't believe the humor would be appreciated. So, upon further recollection I thought of Cinderella. The girl who is not yet a Princess in anything but heart finding her mystery Prince at a ball-what do you think?"

Sasori looked her over once more and-nodded.

"It is fitting."

And then, with frightening swiftness, the tailor was before her a measuring tape in hand. His movements smooth he rapidly measured her every inch while Sakura stood frozen with nerves.

_**Flight is also useless against the Nodding Man as his ginger powers make him swifter than a cheetah. The only hope for survival is to remain as still and as quiet as possible. If we're lucky he's still full from his last victim.**_

_Shut _up_ IS. This is bizarre enough without you adding in an Animal Planet voice over. _

_**Just trying to keep you informed of the current level of danger we're in here. Because, personally, I think some of those cupboards are the perfect size to hide a skeleton in. **_

_Seriously, just be quiet._

And suddenly the measuring was over and sheaves of material were being held under her chin, mute brown eyes flicking efficiently from her own eyes and hair then back to the suspended cloth. Silently he filtered through the ground bound rainbow until he had tested every fabric. With quickly snipping scissors scraps of a few of the textiles were sheared away and a mysterious notebook and pencil were procured from some invisible ginger hiding place.

Furious scribbling followed and then a piece of paper was thrust into Sakura's hands.

"Do you approve?"

Sakura looked down at the paper she held. "Wow…" She finally whispered.

It was a sketch of a beautiful golden gown and seeing Sakura's marveling expression was apparently answer enough for the tailor. With a satisfied nod he gave the scraps of fabric he had cut to a now standing Deidara. "I'll have it done in a few hours. Send in the next girl."

And that was the first meeting between Sakura and the strange artist Sasori.

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**Reviews! Critiques! Thanks to thee!**

**Heehee. **

**I'm puny :)**


	4. Getting Gussied Up

**_After much wait I present Chapter 5! _**

**_I've wanted to sit down and write all week now but with working a full time job, a part time job,summer college, having a boyfriend and my best friend having now moved in with me for the summer finding the time has been a little impossible. _**

**_But enough of me and my excuses. Time for you to get to know our girls a little more. _**

**_Read on!_**

**_xoxo_**

**_Rose_**

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Sakura heard the chattering voices of women echo down the tiled hallway. The smell of floral soap, hair products and nail polish was tangy in the air

"Hello ladies!" Deidara sang as he entered the room, Sakura trailing behind him.

Five women all glanced towards the door as the colorful pair strolled in. Sakura took in the sight of a fully established beauty salon, rows of rainbow colored polish bottles, glinting scissors and curling irons and floor to ceiling mirrors. Hinata waved to her from the far end of the room where a girl in a head wrap, from which magenta bits of her hair stuck out of haphazardly, stood blow drying the paled eyed girl's masses of blue black locks.

"Hey Sakura!" Tenten hailed her from a nearby pedicure chair. "Temari said you were visiting the dressmaker! Did you pick anything out?"

"No but-"

"What the hell Deidara!" Tenten cut her off, pointing her finger at the blonde man accusingly, "I trusted you to take care of things! Uhg I have to do everything don't I…Temari we're going to have to paint my nails later I have to go deal with this-"

"There there now dear Tenten." Deidara cut in, "What Sakura was trying to say is that a dress is being made for her. But, since you're so ready to go why don't you come with me and visit our dressmaker yourself? He has requested one of you anyway."

"Oh." Tenten's battle aura deflated a little before she quickly shook off the mistake and pulled herself to her feet. "Alrighty then! Lead the way blondie!"

"As you wish my lady. But first," He handed the scraps of fabric Sasori had given him to Temari. "These are what her dress will be made with." Deidara said. With that he stepped away to open the door and gave a gallant bow to Tenten. "Now my dear, if you would come with me."

Bathrobe and all Tenten trotted out the door and Sakura watched in bemused wonder as the two swept off in a wave of inexhaustible energy.

"Well hey there!"

_** Oh god. Another energizer bunny.**_

The pink haired girls gaze turned to towards the sound of the voice to be met by lively, upturned teal eyes and a broad smile. "You saw me earlier." The girl reminded her, "I'm Temari and you're Sakura right?"

"Yeah I am." She stuck out her small hand with a smile. "Nice to meet you."

Suddenly Sakura became rather disoriented as her world became the nothing but the tight space between Temari's arms and her large boobs. "Ohh you're so cute!" The blonde squealed shrilly in her ear.

"Ahhhhh," Sakura mumbled from her rather smooshed position, "thank you?"

She was abruptly released only to find herself being pushed in the direction of the hair washing station. "Oh don't thank me yet! I haven't even gotten started!" The blonde plopped Sakura into a cushy leather recliner and expertly tilted her head back onto the neck rest on the sink. Sakura heard the flow of water start and closed her eyes, relaxing as the water was directed at her hair and shampoo massaged into her scalp by nimble fingers.

Conditioner went in and was rinsed out, her hair was rung and then she was being pulled from the chair, a towel wrapped around her head. Meekly, she allowed herself to be guided to another chair in front of the mirrors where Temari pulled out a tube of something and squirted a mound of it into her hand.

"So," she chattered as she began to efficiently smooth the white cream onto Sakura's face. "Tell me about yourself honey."

"Ummm." Sakura wasn't sure how she was supposed to do this while her face was being pulled every which direction. "I'm 17, I'm in my senior year of high school, I like….tea? And…kittens?"

Temari sighed melodramatically and once more dragged her up from the seat. "Come on now sweetie I got more about you out of your friend Tenten than that." The busty woman directed Sakura to another chair set above a swooping edged tub of water for soaking feet. She climbed onto the throne-like chair and tentatively dipped her feet in. Green eyes slid shut and she sighed. Bliss.

"Let's start with the fact that you didn't want to be here." Temari said, drawing a basket out from a compartment under the seat of the stool she had planted herself on she began rummaging around in it. "Tell me why."

"Well…" Sakura began hesitantly, "I just have a thing against Valentine's Day really."

Teal eyes looked up at her incredulously. "Sweet mother of all things good why?"

Sakura blushed in embarrassment and shrugged her shoulders. "It's kinda become a bit of a bitter day I guess. In my family romantic relationships don't really work out."

"Hmmmmm." Temari said, leaning her chin on her fist as she studied Sakura, her expression contemplative. "And there's never been a special man to help change this feeling?"

Sakura laughed awkwardly and shifted her gaze to the sudsy liquid in the basin below, watching her paddling feet "Yeah not so much."

Temari tapped her chin thoughtfully, "Hmmm…well then…" Her face suddenly broke into a wide toothy smile. "We'll just have to get you ready to win a guy tonight won't we!"

Sakura couldn't help but smile back at her. What could she say? That smile was infectious. "Go for it Temari."

And by god go for it she did.

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Two hours later Sakura sat wrapped in a fluffy white bathrobe, polished within an inch of her life. Temari had gone all out on her, exfoliating, moisturizing, buffing and painting her from toe to brow. The two had ended up chattering the entire time and it now felt as if she had known Temari for ages rather than one afternoon.

The blonde was nowhere in sight at the moment though. She had handed Sakura off to Tayuya, the girl with the head wrap, to have her hair done. While extremely talented Tayuya turned out to be a bit of a grump, cursing under her breath in an almost unending hiss as she worked. Sakura had been grateful when her pink tresses had been declared perfect and Tayuya had given her over to Ayame, an adorable little brown haired girl, to have her makeup done, but not before giving stern instructions to not muss the hair dressers master piece.

Sakura examined her pearly pink nails as she waited, thinking there was no way that the dance itself could live up to the preparations for it. Sure, the school she attended was a cushy place and always went all out for dances, but unless they hired a live orchestra, rented horses and handed out Prince Charmings as you walked in, there was no way it would measure up.

"Hey there sexy I'm back!"

Sakura looked up with a grin and there was Temari, smiling above her and looking mighty excited. "Let's get going girl! Sasori's got your dress done and we're on a schedule!"

Sakura sprang to her feet, like a glamorous fluffy lamb in her enormous robe. She had to admit to herself that she was actually feeling pretty enthusiastic about her dress. Because honestly, how often do you have a dress made personally for you by a maniacal ginger tailor genius?

"Oi Sakura!" Tenten called, she had returned from her trip to Sasori's shortly after Sakura's pedicure, "you better not run off! We want to see that dress don't we Hinata?"

Hinata nodded from her place at Ayame's station where she was being artfully covered in swirls of white and silver glitter that matched the white fabric scraps and feather that she had been sent back with from her meeting with Sasori. Sakura had actually been surprised to see how unshaken her timid friend was when she had returned from her visit. Maybe she was the only one who feared the Nodding Man?

_**Or maybe they simply lack predator detecting sonar. **_

_What if he's not actually dangerous? _

_ **…I can't believe that you doubt me and my predator sonar. We are fighting. Don't even speak to me. **_

_ …Right. No problem IS. _

Wow. Her inner self was so easily offended.

Well, then again, so was her outer self.

Sakura now realized that she was having a dialogue with herself, without even her alternate personality to argue with. She wondered briefly if that should worry her…then decided not to bother with worrying.

"Um Sakura?" Sakura refocused onto the real world to see Temari with a slightly concerned expression. "You in there?"

"Huh? Yeah of course! Why?"

"Well," Temari said, "you just kept walking when I stopped by Sasori's door. I had to chase you down."

"Oh…" Sakura flushed, "I did that again huh?"

Temari redirected the ditzy girl, looped her own arm through Sakura's and pulled her back along the hallway. "So you're normally a space case huh?"

"A bit." She mumbled in embarrassment.

"Damn," they had arrived back at Sasori's lair and she banged her fist against the door before turning to look at her in exasperation in her teal eyes, "you're just adorable without even trying aren't you?"

"Ummm…" Sakura stuttered back, her face coloring, "I am?"

The door opened. "Yup, but don't worry dear. No big scary men will ever dare lay a hand on you." And with that Temari shoved her into the ginger ruled darkness.

~ ( ~~ *

...*

Tenten was just about ready to burst out of her skin. Sitting was never something she had been very good at on principal and the fact that, by this point in her life, energy drinks made up about a quarter of her blood supply made patience her least observed virtue.

"Tay!" She whined to the girl who was carefully coiling tiny braids around the crown of her head, "When are you gonna be done?"

The magenta haired stylist gave one of her braids a sharp yank. "First off, don't call me Tay! It's Tayuya. And stop whining you dry haired tomboy!" She scolded firmly, "It's taking me so long because you never care for your hair properly and stuff it up into those ridiculous buns!"

"I like my buns!" Tenten said indignantly, "They're functional and I look like an Asian badass! Which I am! And when can I get this itchy mud stuff off of me huh?"

Tayuya sighed and began rubbing a smoothing solution into the unpinned parts of her victims hair. "I'm almost done. And you can go scrub the henna off over there as soon as I finish this but-no don't go do it yet!-you have to sit still until then!"

Tenten slumped down in her chair in defeat and was promptly jabbed in the back by a pair of scissors. She straightened with a yelp and turned around to glare at an innocently smiling Tayuya.

"I can't finish your hair if you're slouching dear." She said with a cloying smile that sent Tenten's skin crawling.

The take-no-shit athlete turned around obediently, her back ruler straight. "I feel like some sort of dog she's training for a competition." She grumbled to herself.

However, since Tayuya was standing right behind her it wasn't exactly to herself. "Well," the hair stylist chipped in, "in a sense I am preparing you for a competition."

Tenten rolled her doe brown eyes at this. "And what competition would that be?"

"The getting a man competition. One I'll bet you've never been very good at."

Tenten grimaced. The hair pulling monster was right. She was always one of the guys, tough and indestructible. The only ones who ever asked her out were the ones who were more interested in her stamina in bed than in actually getting to know the female under the sweatsuit.

The hands in her hair stopped moving and the chair swung around. Tayuya leaned down with a weary expression on her face.

"Look," she sighed, "you obviously need all the help you can get so listen closely. When a guy first meets a girl he's looking for two things. One is confidence and you seem to have plenty of that. What I think you're lacking here is the second thing, intrigue. They think cause you beat them up in gym class that you're just a straight forward, no mysteries type of girl. Well, they're wrong. There is no woman in the world that isn't a mystery to men. You have to remind them of that. Do you understand what I'm saying?"

Tenten knitted her brows in confusion. "Umm, I have to be mysterious?"

"Don't say it like a question!" Tayuya cried, throwing her skinny arms out in exasperation, her elbow nearly clipping Tenten in the head. "Yes! You have to be mysterious! You have to make them curious, make them wonder what they're missing. You do that and you'll have men all over you tonight. Got it you thick headed shemale?"

Tenten wasn't sure if she should be grateful or insulted, but she appreciated the attempt. "Don't worry Tay I got it!"

Tayuya walked away and started sweeping the floor in fast, frustrated swipes. "Well I hope whatever Sasori put together can help you cause mother earth knows how else you're going to get a man. And go wash off that mud. You look like a shedding lizard."

~ ( ~~ *

...*

It was if she had been reborn as a star. Shimmering lotion made her already milk white skin wink with every movement and glittering spirals and constellations adorned her entire body. Her face glowed, clean and fresh, her pale lavender eyes shadowed by the dark curve of ink black lashes. Her hair flowed down her bare back in a waterfall of ebony and blue, like a piece of the night sky that shifted sensuously with every movement.

Hinata's hands knotted together nervously as she looked back at herself in the mirror. It was not her own body she saw there, the one usually shrouded from sight by bulky sweatshirts and ill fitting pants, no, this was someone else. The girl in the reflection was wearing what could only be described as art. The skirt ballooning outward and ending just above the knees was ballerina-esc, as were her bared shoulders as the top of the corset flared out sculpturally into wing like tips just to the outsides of her collar bones. The stark whiteness of tulle and the hundreds of feathers that gleamed softly along the curves of her body harmonized with the glimmer of her boldly displayed flesh.

The red haired dressmaker called Sasori walked up to her with a pair of silken ballet shoes and single pearl earrings in his hands. He held them out expectantly and she plucked them from his palms with caution.

"Th-th-thank y-you." She murmured nervously, her dramatic change in appearance making her usual anxious stutter kick into overdrive.

Sasori nodded, his expression bland, "Of course. My creation needs the appropriate accessories to complement it. Though you do so very well on your own Miss Hyuuga."

"O-o-o-oh gosh," her fingers fumbled at the satin ribbons of the shoes as she tried to speak and she dropped one. "Sorry." She squeaked out.

"Please, let me." Sasori said, stooping down to pick up the shoe. His deft fingers untangled the ribbon she had been struggling with and he held out out the shoe towards her foot expectantly until she realized with a start he was going to put her slippers on for her.

Two shoes later, the ribbons twined perfectly around her slender legs and the pearls in her ears, Sasori declared Hinata complete.

"Th-th-thank you so mu-mu-much." She whispered, sending him a shy smile.

He nodded serenely in satisfaction. "You are a work of art and, for tonight, my master piece. It was an honor to remake you."

"And what a bright and shining star you have molded her into!" The musical exclamation echoed through the room as Deidara glided in. "Twirl for me my dear I implore you!"

Like red ink on white tissue a scarlet stain spread out over Hinata as her audience expanded from the quiet artist to include the mad blonde man. Swallowing hard, Hinata gave a timid twirl.

"Beautiful!" Deidara sang, "every inch the Swan Princess!"

Hinata looked down at her feet and tried to contain her worsening blush. "Th-thank y-you." She murmured.

"Now my dear would you accompany me to the waiting room to join your friends?"

"Oh, yes, o-of course." Hinata said, stepping down. Deidara took her sweaty hand and laid it genially upon his forearm.

"Th-thank you again Sasori." Hinata thanked the dressmaker once more as Deidara led her towards the door, Sasori following behind. She hoped silently that he would come with her to meet everyone else, his quiet presence and pride in her made being as undressed as she was not quite as frightening.

"Have a lovely night Miss Hinata."

And with that Sasori closed the door behind them, crushing her hopes and Hinata gulped heavily to wet her suddenly dry throat as she prepared herself for the hundreds of eyes she would face alone that night.

**~ ( ~~ ***

**...***

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